Jûzô Murasaki is a boy miscast in his classroom, being frequently abused, tortured, beaten and humiliated by the bully Tôru Akai and his gang of juvenile punks. After years of repression, rejection and fear without facing Akai, he develops a psychopathic dual personality with a violent alter-ego. While living in the apartment 13 of a tenement building, he becomes unable to control his violent dark personality, who plots an evil revenge against his upper floor neighbor Akai and his family.

I am a great fan of Asian movies and I found "Rinjin 13-gô" a hidden gem, developing a dark, gruesome and surrealistic psychological thriller of repressed hatred and revenge combined with horror. The screenplay follows the usual patterns of Asian horror movies, with a plot point in the very end, and the viewer must use his or her brain to understand the whole plot. I believe this is the greatest quality of screenplay writers and directors of this genre in Asia. I note that people accustomed to watch blockbusters and American movies only seem to have difficulties to properly understand the intelligent Asian screenplays. In this film, all the adult situations only have happened in the mind of the young Jûzô Murasaki, and when he faces the bully Tôru Akai, he resolves all his inner problems and the time-line will never happen the way it is disclosed in the film. Therefore, the screenplay is absolutely original and I do not recall seeing any similar story. In addition, the movie is stylishly shot, with unusual angle of camera and a nice cinematography. The actors and actress have great performances and there is a cult cameo appearance of the director Takashi Miike in homage to the promising Yasuo Inoue. My advice to the movie lovers is to keep his name in the pocket, since his debut could not be better. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Ódio" ("Hate")

Nothing like the definite articles to confound the Asian language as we see in the title of the film. The film is dubbed in English. Jûzô Murasaki was bullied as a youngster by Akai and his gang. Later in life Jûzô lives in apartment 13 while Akai lives in 23. He winds up working for a construction company where Akai continues to bully him. Jûzô develops an alter ego which enacts revenge.

The alter ego is "my real face" as it is disfigured from acid. This is a film that is well done, well written, but has low action level and the plot didn't overly engage me in spite of being clever. The dialogue I found boring. The entertainment value left a little something to be desired. The comedian on TV was cringe worthy.

The film has blood, bullying, violence and male rear nudity. The ending was unexpected.

Note: If pouring acid on someone, you should wear gloves, apron, safety goggles and a face shield...just saying. If you get acid spilled on you, 15 minutes of flushing is recommended. HF acids spills require special treatment.

First-time director Yasuo Inoue tells the story of a troubled young psychopath named Juzo Murasaki,who was tormented through school by group of his classmates,led by Toru Akai.This leads to the young boy to create a split personality,where his other half is on the psychotic side and apparently only comes out when he feels bullied or angry."The Neighbor No.Thirteen" is slow and deliberate horror film laced with heavy psychological tones.It's obviously influenced by "All Night Long" series and Takashi Miike's works.The film offers a few moments of brutal and highly disturbing violence,so fans of Japanese transgressive cinema should be pleased.The finale is quite disappointing,though.My rating:9 out of 10.